Progress and Barack Obama

Excuse me for using blue language but I've got to say it...

I am getting sick to f***ing death of British pundits telling us how Obama's nomination marks a point of progress for the United States.

WTFO?!!!

Progress?  In race relations??

When was the last f***ing time you saw a black man or woman as foreign secretary in the UK?

Okay, I'll lower the bar: when was the last time you saw a black Director-General of the hideously white BBC?

If you folks haven't noticed, for the past 7 years, the Secretary of State of the United States has had a dark complexion, and they weren't there because they were black, they were there because they were good.

How about a Supreme Court Justice?  Maybe I'm wrong here, but I don't think any of the Law Lords, or any of the justices in the European high courts are as darkly complected as Clarence Thomas, yet another person who holds his job because he is good, not because he is black.

I'll admit there's a little bit of racism at play in the US, hell, even a whole lot...But black people have been closer to the levers of power under the "neanderthal" tendencies of unenlightened Republican presidents, than under Democratic presidents. 

Progress has been made, it just isn't the kind that makes liberals feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  You know, the kind that patronises people based upon their race and ethnicity, the kind that exacerbates that poverty of low expectations that liberals seem to want to spread.

Comments

[Monty]

I reckon the guy has already set back race relations, whether he gets to the white house or not.

For many years he has been a member of a black racist church, in which hatred of America and hatred of whitey has been preached to an enthusiastic congregation. How could anyone believe he did not notice that?

And why would any white working class voter support a candidate who is considered to be racially bigotted against whites?

Regardless of the outcome he will leave the USA deeply divided along racial lines.

[James G.]

Monty,
I'm afraid you might be right. The doings at Obama's church don't bother me: I've always known that those sorts of churches are out there, and I'm not that shocked by them.

(In fact, I have a pet belief based upon people I've known and worked for, which is that a bit of Afro-centrism and Black Nationalism are necessary to help poor black Americans get through to being self-sufficient and to helping them establish a more conservative point of view. I have worked for a few stand-up individuals whose experiences did just that for them. Alas, if only we could find a similar phenomenon that can do the same for poor whites.)

I think, though, that had Obama not run, most of the people who got upset about the church and his acquaintances would have been happy in their ignorance. Personally, I think churches like that are marginal to what is happening in black culture in America, now, where the middle class is burgeoning and issues of true racist bigotry itself are starting to fade to the background.

I'm sure there are people who would disagree with me, but even my wife, who is English noticed a marked difference in the way black people related to white people between her first trip to Atlanta in 2002, and her most recent in 2007. I attibute this to a growing true affluence. Atlanta, now, is being hailed as one of the most integrated cities in the US. When people become middle class, issues of race (on both sides) tend to diminish.

I suspect the same phenomena are taking place in other cities in the US.

[Monty]

It occurs to me that churches like Trinity are too invested in helping black families find someone else to blame for their lack of advancement. It's always someone elses fault for keeping you down.

I expect, and have seen, the same attitude in the UK among folk who consider themselves "disadvantaged", (and we should ban that word). What you actually find when you get down to details, is that these are folk who have passed up every opportunity they ever had for a better life for themselves, and their children. They chose to drop out of school, they chose teenage pregnancy, drugs, petty crime, state benefits, and family breakdown.

They are very good at slogans, like "We are the people we have been waiting for". And then they sit down again and keep waiting. It's easier than working, or struggling to get on in life. This is self-indulgence. They are sitting in the middle of the lifeboat, (while others on the outside man the oars), complaining that all the good seats are taken.

I have concluded that it is difficult to get people out of this hopeless condition, because the truth is they like it. It is comfortable, and no-one really expects such a well trained loser to take any risks, or achieve anything. But it takes a devastating degree of honesty to admit that, so instead they keep bleating and blaming.

[James G.]

Monty,
I have to admit, that up until a point, I was very much like that.

I think Grace has a lot to do with bringing people out of that thought mode, alongside of a little bit of living life without a safety net.

[Monty]

James I reckon we were all like that when we were growing up, convinced that the world owed us a living. I certainly was.

I remember learning the hard way, that my Ma would drag me out of bed on a Sunday morning and the best way to avoid that was to be up, washed, dressed and ready for church before she got the chance.

I remember learning, the hard way, that she would do the same on a Saturday morning while I was sleeping off a hangover from the night before.

If I didn't get my assignments done on time I wouldn't get the marks, or the prize at year-end.

But I suppose the most important lesson was, whenever I tried to achieve something, people gave me help and encouragement. You can take on the most menial of jobs, work hard, and folks remember your name when something better comes around. And it's funny how fast it comes around.

I have met lots of youngsters who won't take any job unless it is the top job, the perfect job. Too special for lowly work, they decided to fester until their genius was suddenly discovered by a grateful world.
I have also met a few who knew how to recognise an entry level opportunity, and took the chance presented to them.

The former are still long-term unemployed. The latter are mainly working, home-owning, married, with children, and some have gone into business for themelves. One of them owns his own chip shop. Oh, the unfairness, the cruel injustice of it all. Pass the salt.....

[Monty]

We all have to let go of our comfort blanket at some time, and take an audacious step into the unknown. The big wide worldy-thingy. Where you can do your best and still fail.

You mentioned Grace, and I think you meant it in the personal spiritual sense. I suppose as a source of strength and resolve. Maybe I am wrong there. But I have a rather simplistic view of Grace. Rather like a jolly good breakfast, but longer lasting. Something to sustain you as you sally forth, with good intentions, into the fray, or onto the bathroom scales.

But there is something, a sense, that even an agnostic like me can draw upon when decision time rolls around. Something that lies low until push comes to shove. Something in ones pocket. Perhaps it tides us over until our next encounter with Himself.

I have already rambled on, and taken up far too much of your time today. But thank you James. It's a nice website you know.

[James G.]

Cheers Monty...

Ramble as much as you'd like.

I do attribute the "luck" that has brought me to the place I am as too coincidental to be anything other than a divine hand in my life pushing me in directions I didn't want to go. That's kind of what I refer to as Grace. I have truly been given a gift. Some days I am more cognisant of it than on others, though.

[Monty]

I foresee no good coming out of this electoral cycle, regardless of the outcome. A white candidate who isn't very republican, a democrat candidate who isn't awfully black, and two cohorts of party activists who don't even like their own candidates.

But if one of 'em doesn't win, it will have been racism. Riggghhht!

If I was a betting woman, (I'm not, I swore off gambling as a teenager when my horse came home at 33 to 1), I would buy shares in those companies who make the "Don't blame me, I voted for Hitler" buttons. And I would sell them outside the polling booths in November.

[alison]

'ello

We had a woman PM. We had a ringleted Jew PM. Nothing prevents black white or yellow man or woman from making it to the top here if they so desire.

But historically it is in the US that race relations, and political correctness, have led the way or exploded and carried themselves elsewhere.

It was not us who failed to notice the rather lovely black woman fronting your foreign relations. It's your own public, your own media and your own Obama and his minions. This in turn feeds the press.

There is more than a little bit a play. It's all consuming.

He is happily conducting his campaign on a racially led basis and prior to that Hilary on pretty much a gender basis. Largely because you are crazy enough to route something as vital as access to abortion through your election process and make women vote on it. (Hence also in my view, the enormous weight of the feminist movement in America)

When interviewed by the BBC a black woman in America said she would vote for Obama because he is black.

My own black American colleagues here feel the same way.

wtf?

Given that many Americans are still old enough to recall being refused a seat on the bus it's not surprising but it's also sad so little progress has been made in race relations when in actual fact you can do and be anything in America with the brains and character to do it, these days. No matter what.

Michelle Obama however only felt proud to be an American when her black husband ran for office.

That's damning. That the possible First Lady would make such a statement with all the world listening.

(Why do all Americans base their views of us soley on the media?!)

[James G.]

Well, Alison, this American doesn't base his views solely on the media...I live here, remember? :-)

Y'know, I don't really blame black people for voting for Obama or for going to churches like Trinity. Many people will stick to their own anyway, and I'm hoping that once the novelty of voting for a black man is over, that the average black voter will get beyond skin colour next time up.

The possible first lady said what she said because she is completely out of her depth. And so is her husband. They never really switched gears from being "community organisers" to being national-level politicians. I don't think Obama ever planned to get this far, or if he had, I don't think he spent a lot of time thinking about it.

Many people I have known who aspire to national level politics (even as back room operators) are a lot more circumspect than they have been; unless the goal is to throw metaphorical bombs.

[alison]

Maybe about Obama. But Micheel making those utterances was so out of order. And worse than that unAmerican.

God did you see that hatchet job the press did on the British forces in Basra yesterday which they have totally contradicted today? I really wish we would stay out of all these idiotic wars now. I'm even losing support for Afghanistan. Not only is there no appreciation on the ground from the people we are supposedly helping, but our Allies are quick to undermine us, NATO screws us, the inevitable tactics errors and mistakes are splattered all over the press to the detriment of the GOOD, and public opinion blows hot and cold. Meanwhile good British lives are being wasted in this media maelstrom. It's as if the war is being fought to sell papers. We were making a good difference in Afghanistan. I can feel the press are about to piss that all up the wall too in a bid for a silly scoop. Grrrrr!

[James G.]

Alison,
Completely agree. Most wars are generally a series of mistakes and the gotcha tactics of the press really undermines the good that we do through fighting the wars.

The irony is that if we (both US and UK) took our toys home and stopped fighting the bad guys, the same people criticising the war effort would be the same ones clamouring to say "something must be done".

As for the unAmerican-ness of Michele Obama, unfortunately, those sentiments are common, but generally, people with those sorts of sentiments can never go as far as the Obamas have gone without keeping those sentiments private.

The barbarians are inside the gate.